Dr Patricia Kanngiesser
Profiles

Dr Patricia Kanngiesser

Associate Professor in Psychology

School of Psychology (Faculty of Health)

Dr Patricia Kanngiesser can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
  • Psychology
  • Behavioural science
  • Cross-cultural research
  • Cross-sectional studies
  • Experimental methods
  • Field work
  • Observational methods
  • Quantitative research
Biography

Biography

Associate Professor in Psychology
Professional Experience
  • Associate Professor in Psychology, University of Plymouth (UK) 2020-date
  • Interim-Professor (W3), Early Child Development and Culture, Universität Leipzig (DE), 2019-2020
  • Research Group Leader, Cross-Cultural Developmental Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin (DE), 2016-2020
  • Research Scientist/Marie Curie Fellow/PostDoc, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (DE), 2012-2015
  • Visiting Researcher, Kyoto University (JP), 10/2011-12/2011 
  • Research Fellow, Harvard University (US), 05/2011-09/2011
  • Student Research Assistant, Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center, Leipzig (DE), 2007-2008 
Education
  • PhD in Psychology, University of Bristol (UK), 2012
  • Diploma (Master) in Neuroscience, Universität Magdeburg (DE), 2007
  • Undergraduate Studies in Biochemistry, Life Sciences, and Philosophy; Goethe Universität Frankfurt (DE) and University of Toronto (CA) 
Field Research/International Research Sites
  • India, 2016-date
  • Bolivia, 2015-date
  • Argentina, 2014-date
  • Namibia, 2014
  • Kenya, 2013

Key publications

House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Broesch T, Cebioglu S, Crittenden AN, Erut A, Lew-Levy S, Sebastian-Enesco C & Smith AM (2020) 'Universal norm psychology leads to societal diversity in prosocial behaviour and development' Nature Human Behaviour 4, (1) 36-44 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Schäfer M, Herrmann E, Zeidler H, Haun D & Tomasello M (2022) 'Children across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119, (1) , DOI Open access
Köster M, Torréns MG, Kärtner J, Itakura S, Cavalcante L & Kanngiesser P (2022) 'Parental teaching behavior in diverse cultural contexts' Evolution and Human Behavior 43, (5) 432-441 , DOI
Woike J, Hafenbrädl S, Kanngiesser P & Hertwig R (2022) 'The Transmission Game: Testing behavioral interventions in a pandemic-like simulation' Science Advances 8, (8) , DOI Open access
House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Yilmaz S, Smith AM, Sebastian-Enesco C, Erut A & Silk JB (2020) 'Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment' Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Rossano F, Frickel R, Tomm A & Tomasello M (2019) 'Children, but not great apes, respect ownership' Developmental Science 23, (1) 0-0 , DOI Open access
View all publications
Teaching

Teaching

Teaching interests

  • Culture, development, and human behaviour
  • Social cognition and behaviour
  • Social norms
  • Interdisciplinary approaches to human behaviour
  • Research ethics
Currently teaching on the following modules:
PSYC604: Culture and Human Behaviour
PSYC414: Relationships
PSYC760: Advanced Research Design and Data Fluency for Psychology
Research

Research

Research interests

Broadly speaking, I am interested in human behaviour in social environments and social institutions. A large part of my research to date has focused on norms: I have studied how we acquire and transmit norms as well as societal variation in norms. Increasingly, I am applying these insights to broader societal questions such as how to foster ethical behaviours and cooperation, and how to improve understanding of complex, interdependent systems. In the past, I have also conducted behavioural (non-invasiv) research with non-human great apes and maintain an interest in comparative psychology. My work draws on insights from a range of disciplines including behavioural sciences, biology, anthropology, and philosophy and often takes place in multiple countries through a network of international research collaborations. Methodologically, I rely primarily on experimental measures inside and outside the lab, but also use observational and qualitative measures. 

PhD student supervision
  • Sayyeda Rubab, University of Plymouth (UK)
  • Süheyla Yilmaz, Leipzig University (DE)
  • Spencer Talbot, second supervisor, University of Plymouth (UK)
PhD advisory committee
  •  Noemi Thiede, Leipzig University
  • Louisa Schmidt, Leipzig University
Completed PhD supervision
  • Dr Lina Alhaddad, now a PostDoc at University Halle

Grants & contracts

  • Freigeist Fellowship for an independent research group, Navigating the social world—A cross-cultural and developmental perspective on social norms, PI, VolkswagenFoundation, 1,063,700€, 2016-2020
  •  Marie Curie Intra-European Career Development Grant, The cross-cultural development of resource allocation behaviour (XCULTDEVRESALL), PI, European Commission 7th Framework Programme, 162,000€, 2013-2015 
Publications

Publications

Key publications

House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Broesch T, Cebioglu S, Crittenden AN, Erut A, Lew-Levy S, Sebastian-Enesco C & Smith AM (2020) 'Universal norm psychology leads to societal diversity in prosocial behaviour and development' Nature Human Behaviour 4, (1) 36-44 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Schäfer M, Herrmann E, Zeidler H, Haun D & Tomasello M (2022) 'Children across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119, (1) , DOI Open access
Köster M, Torréns MG, Kärtner J, Itakura S, Cavalcante L & Kanngiesser P (2022) 'Parental teaching behavior in diverse cultural contexts' Evolution and Human Behavior 43, (5) 432-441 , DOI
Woike J, Hafenbrädl S, Kanngiesser P & Hertwig R (2022) 'The Transmission Game: Testing behavioral interventions in a pandemic-like simulation' Science Advances 8, (8) , DOI Open access
House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Yilmaz S, Smith AM, Sebastian-Enesco C, Erut A & Silk JB (2020) 'Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment' Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Rossano F, Frickel R, Tomm A & Tomasello M (2019) 'Children, but not great apes, respect ownership' Developmental Science 23, (1) 0-0 , DOI Open access

Key publications are highlighted

Journals
Articles
Weltzien S, Marsh L, Kanngiesser P & Hood B (2024) 'Young dictators - Speaking about oneself decreases generosity in children from two cultural contexts' PLoS ONE
Kopp K, Kanngiesser P, Brügger RK, Daum MM, Gampe A, Köster M, van Schaik CP, Liebal K & Burkart JM (2024) 'The proximate regulation of prosocial behaviour: Towards a conceptual framework for comparative research' Animal Cognition
Bohn M, da Silva Vieira WF, Giner Torréns M, Kärtner J, Itakura S, Cavalcante L, Haun D, Köster M & Kanngiesser P (2024) 'Mealtime conversations between parents and their 2-year-old children in five cultural contexts' Developmental Psychology
Kanngiesser P (2023) 'The missing link? How do non-human primates fit in the minimalist model of ownership? (Commentary)' Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Kanngiesser P, Sunderarajan J & Woike J (2023) 'Cheating and the effect of promises in Indian and German children' Child Development , DOI Open access
Meyer C, Alhaddad L, Stammel N, Sixtus F, Wesche J, Kerschreiter R, Kanngiesser P & Knaevelsrud C (2023) 'With a Little Help from my Friends: Acculturation and Mental Health in Arabic-speaking Refugee Youth Living with their Families' Frontiers in Psychiatry , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Serko D & Woike JK (2023) 'Promises on the go: A field study on keeping one's word' Frontiers in Psychology 14, , DOI Open access
Stengelin R, Haun DBM & Kanngiesser P (2023) 'Simulating peers: Can puppets simulate peer interactions in studies on children's socio‐cognitive development?' Child Development 94, (5) 1117-1135 , DOI Open access
Würbel I & Kanngiesser P (2023) 'Pre-schoolers’ images, intergroup attitudes, and liking of refugee peers in Germany' PLOS ONE 18, (2) e0280759-e0280759 , DOI Open access
Köster M, Torréns MG, Kärtner J, Itakura S, Cavalcante L & Kanngiesser P (2022) 'Parental teaching behavior in diverse cultural contexts' Evolution and Human Behavior 43, (5) 432-441 , DOI
Stengelin R, Ball R, Maurits L, Kanngiesser P & Haun DBM (2022) 'Children over-imitate adults and peers more than puppets' Developmental science 26, (2) , DOI Open access
Broesch T, Lew-Levy S, Kline M, Kärtner J & Kanngiesser P (2022) 'A roadmap to doing culturally grounded developmental science' Review of Philosophy and Psychology , DOI Open access
Marsh LE, Gil J & Kanngiesser P (2022) 'The influence of collaboration and culture on the IKEA effect: Does cocreation alter perceptions of value in British and Indian children?' Developmental Psychology 58, (4) 662-670 , DOI Open access
Woike J, Hafenbrädl S, Kanngiesser P & Hertwig R (2022) 'The Transmission Game: Testing behavioral interventions in a pandemic-like simulation' Science Advances 8, (8) , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Schäfer M, Herrmann E, Zeidler H, Haun D & Tomasello M (2022) 'Children across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119, (1) , DOI Open access
Alhaddad L, Goodwin R & Kanngiesser P (2021) 'Challenges and Coping: Perspectives of Syrian and Iraqi Refugee Youth in Germany' Journal of Adolescent Research , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Mammen M & Tomasello M (2021) 'Young children’s understanding of justifications for breaking a promise' Cognitive Development 60, 101127-101127 , DOI Open access
Köster M, Langeloh M, Kliesch C, Kanngiesser P & Hoehl S (2021) 'The value of subsequent memory paradigms in uncovering neural mechanisms of early social learning' NeuroImage 234, , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Sunderarajan J & Woike JK (2021) 'Keeping them honest: Promises reduce cheating in adolescents' Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 34, (2) 183-198 , DOI Open access
Köster M, Langeloh M, Kliesch C, Kanngiesser P & Hoehl S (2020) 'Motor cortex activity during action observation predicts subsequent action imitation in human infants' NeuroImage 116958-116958 , DOI Open access
House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Yilmaz S, Smith AM, Sebastian-Enesco C, Erut A & Silk JB (2020) 'Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment' Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, , DOI Open access
House BR, Kanngiesser P, Barrett HC, Broesch T, Cebioglu S, Crittenden AN, Erut A, Lew-Levy S, Sebastian-Enesco C & Smith AM (2020) 'Universal norm psychology leads to societal diversity in prosocial behaviour and development' Nature Human Behaviour 4, (1) 36-44 , DOI Open access
Haun DBM, Liebal K, Amici F, Bender A, Bohn M, Braeuer J, Buttelmann D, Burkart J, Cacchione T & DeTroy S (2020) 'A Pleading for the Relevance of comparative Psychology for the Understanding of human Development' PSYCHOLOGISCHE RUNDSCHAU 71, (1) 40-41
Molleman L, Kanngiesser P & van den Bos W (2019) 'Social information use in adolescents: The impact of adults, peers and household composition' PLOS ONE 14, (11) e0225498-e0225498 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Rossano F, Zeidler H, Haun D & Tomasello M (2019) 'Children’s respect for ownership across diverse societies' Developmental Psychology 55, 2286-2298 , DOI Open access
Woike JK & Kanngiesser P (2019) 'Most people keep their word rather than their money' Open Mind 3, 68-88 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Rossano F, Frickel R, Tomm A & Tomasello M (2019) 'Children, but not great apes, respect ownership' Developmental Science 23, (1) 0-0 , DOI Open access
Petrowski M, Kanngiesser P & Friedman O (2019) 'Two- and three-year-olds consider ownership when selecting and allocating resources' Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 185, 214-223 , DOI Open access
Weltzien S, Marsh L, Kanngiesser P, Stuijfzand B & Hood B (2019) 'Considering self or others across two cultural contexts: How children’s resource allocations are affected by self-construal manipulations' Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 184, 139-157 , DOI
Isella M, Kanngiesser P & Tomasello M (2018) 'Children’s Selective Trust in Promises' Child Development 90, e868-e887 , DOI Open access
Marsh LE, Kanngiesser P & Hood B (2017) 'When and how does labour lead to love? The ontogeny and mechanisms of the IKEA effect' Cognition 170, 245-253 , DOI
Kanngiesser P, Köymen B & Tomasello M (2017) 'Young children mostly keep, and expect others to keep, their promises' Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 159, 140-158 , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Woike JK (2016) 'Framing the debate on human-like framing effects in bonobos and chimpanzees: a comment on Krupenye et al. (2015)' Biology Letters 12, 20150718-20150718 , DOI
Hood B, Weltzien S, Marsh L & Kanngiesser P (2016) 'Picture yourself: Self-focus and the endowment effect in preschool children' Cognition 152, 70-77 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Rossano F & Tomasello M (2015) 'Late Emergence of the First Possession Heuristic: Evidence From a Small-Scale Culture' Child Development 86, (4) 1282-1289 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Itakura S, Zhou Y, Kanda T, Ishiguro H & Hood B (2015) 'The role of social eye-gaze in children’s and adults’ ownership attributions to robotic agents in three cultures' Interaction Studies 16, 1-28 , DOI
Kanngiesser P, Itakura S & Hood BM (2014) 'The effect of labour on ownership decisions in two cultures: Developmental evidence from Japan and the United Kingdom' British Journal of Developmental Psychology 32, 320-329 , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Hood BM (2014) 'Young children’s understanding of ownership rights for newly made objects' Cognitive Development 29, 30-40 , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Hood B (2013) 'Not by labor alone: Considerations for value influence use of the labor rule in ownership transfers' Cognitive Science 38, 353-366 , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Warneken F (2013) 'Correction: Young Children Consider Merit when Sharing Resources with Others' PLoS ONE 8, (8) , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Warneken F (2012) 'Young children consider merit when sharing resources with others' PloS One 7, e43979-e43979 , DOI Open access
Kanngiesser P, Santos LR, Hood BM & Call J (2011) 'The limits of endowment effects in great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus)' Journal of Comparative Psychology 125, 436-445 , DOI
Kanngiesser P, Sueur C, Riedl K, Grossmann J & Call J (2010) 'Grooming network cohesion and the role of individuals in a captive chimpanzee group' American Journal of Primatology 73, 758-767 , DOI
Potì P, Kanngiesser P, Saporiti M, Amiconi A, Bläsing B & Call J (2010) 'Searching in the middle—Capuchins’ (Cebus apella) and bonobos’ (Pan paniscus) behavior during a spatial search task' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 36, 92-109 , DOI
Kanngiesser P, Gjersoe N & Hood BM (2010) 'The effect of creative labor on property-ownership transfer by preschool children and adults' Psychological Science 21, 1236-1241 , DOI
Kanngiesser P & Call J (2009) 'Bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang utans use feature and spatial cues in two spatial memory tasks' Animal Cognition 13, 419-430 , DOI Open access
Chapters
Kanngiesser P, Schmidt MFH & Rossano F (2016) 'Young children’s understanding of social norms and social institutions' in Kury H; Redo SL; Shea E Women and children as victims and offenders: Background, prevention, reintegration. Vol. 1: Suggestions for succeeding generations
Presentations and posters
Woike J & Kanngiesser P Woike J & Kanngiesser P 'Can promises reduce cheating in the absence of punishment? Economic Science Association (ESA) World Meeting, Berlin, Germany, 2018'
Serko D, Kanngiesser P & Woike JK Serko D, Kanngiesser P & Woike JK 'Keeping one's word is not the exception, it’s the rule. International Conference on Social Dilemmas, Sedona, Arizona, USA, 2019'
Woike JK & Kanngiesser P Woike JK & Kanngiesser P 'Promises and dice: Do people keep their word rather than their money? Subjective Probability, Utility, and Decision Making Conference (SPUDM), Haifa, Israel, 2017'
Woike JK & Kanngiesser P Woike JK & Kanngiesser P 'Promises and dice: Most people keep their word rather than their money, Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Boston, USA, 2016'
Woike J & Kanngiesser P Woike J & Kanngiesser P 'Promises and dice: Most people keep their word rather than their money, International Conference on Social Dilemmas, Taormina, Italy, 2017'
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